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Over the last month I have been having some major issues with my BDP-93 and wanted to see if anybody has a solution. Keep in mind that I have not changed firmware or anything else, the problems started happening at random!

The first fault is that my player locks up before it gets to the title screen on some Blu-ray discs, this has only happened a handful of times but is 100% replicable on the same discs. They always lock up on preview screens or fanfare screens (at the very beginning of the track) the player just sits there displaying the track number, then eventually my TV goes in to sleep mode.

The second fault is I can't change regions to play international Blu-rays any more; I am locked to region A no matter how many times I enter the code to change, with numerous times of powering the device off and on etc, it simply does not change! I have the cheaper mod where you need to press dimmer 3 times followed by mute and select either 1, 2, 3, to change to desired regions. DVDs that used to work are also not working so it is not isolated to BD.

The third problem is subtitles fail to work for any disc now. When I select the subtitle the player fails to save my selection, it acts as if I made no selection, in other words the subtitles screen shows me that I have no subtitles selected after I select one.

I am assuming that the region free chip might have something to do with the bulk of the issues but I am not entirely sure what is happening. I am from Australia and there are no service centres in my state so I would like to try and troubleshoot from my end before shipping it off.

Over the last month I have been having some major issues with my BDP-93 and wanted to see if anybody has a solution. Keep in mind that I have not changed firmware or anything else, the problems started happening at random!

Are you running current firmware? You might try reinstalling it from USB even if so.

As a diagnostic, it would be good to eliminate the region free mod as a factor if nothing else works. Is it removable?

-Bill

Hey. I had already updated to the latest firmware and reset factory settings before I posted in here. I will have to open this player up and see about removing the chip. I think it might be soldered in, though I am unsure.

I will say this for the Oppo 93, we all know how long it has been in production, what I will add is I played over 1000 DVDs through mine and it works fine. It also is a good performer with CD and SACDs, maybe played 200 spins; although I usually play music on another player.

Funny it will not play a few DVDs while my cheapo Panasonic will, but nevertheless, played in analogue, or HDMI, it is a real good performer.

Note: well taken care of, seldom moved. I am including Blu-ray as DVDs

I got it initially to bring the sound quality of my Blu-rays up to parity with my Denon 2910 DVD/CD/DVD-A/SACD, as I had noticed that my original Blu-ray player, a Panasonic BD50, didn't sound as rich playing standard CDs as the Denon did.

This was while I was running multichannel analog into my pre-HDMI Yamaha RX-V457.

It did that in spades, upgraded the video as well, and turned me on to DLNA playing of music - including 5.1 96/24 FLACs - off my PC over my LAN. So what if it can't have music "pushed" to it by a graphical player like JRiver - its composite video output can let me leave my projector off and use a 9" LCD screen to browse my server and pull down music - in the dark, with no handshake interruptions from turning the dashboard on or off.

I've made it region-free for DVDs with the SuperDisk, and I've never found a disk it couldn't play (I don't have any HD DVDs).

Now my 93's driving an RX-A1030 over HDMI and I'm watching films in 7.1 with a DAC that's in the same family as the ones in the more expensive Oppo Blu-ray players.

I don't understand why Oppo hobbled the composite jack on its later players. They don't have to put out video from disks - but at least let us see the machine's own menus in its DLNA network browser the way we can with the 93! I don't see what complaint the movie industry could have about that.

I wasn't sure if I would need a powered USB hub so I was considering the Belkin AC powered USB 2.0 Hub to plug the 3 portable hard drives in.

I wasn't sure if portable hard drives would work on the Oppo. It's easier to unplug & plug into the computer if I want to switch .iso files when I use a portable drive.

Also I've been reading that some USB hubs won't show all the drives on the Oppo. I wasn't sure if there was someone that has been using portable hard drives with a USB hub that found a combination that worked well.

Again I would be using 3 portable WD hard drives plugged into USB port. The drives are 3.0 USB drives & the hub would be USB 2.0

For the portable hard drives I was considering the WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive (WDBU6Y0020BBK-NESN) and for the USB hub I was considering the Belkin AC Powered Ultra-Slim Series 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub (F4U040v)

Since the Oppo's USB jack is 2.0, it doesn't matter that only part of your intended rig is 3.0, since it will only be able to run at 2.0 speeds regardless.

If the drives are 3.0 and you've got a 3.0 port on your PC to use to write to the drives, that would be good, but for playback through the Oppo it wouldn't matter.

Now it's someone else's turn to answer the rest of his question, since I use the 93's ethernet jack for UPnP/DLNA network play of music and home videos I shoot with my DSLR - I've never plugged in a local outboard drive.

I wasn't sure if I would need a powered USB hub so I was considering the Belkin AC powered USB 2.0 Hub to plug the 3 portable hard drives in.

I wasn't sure if portable hard drives would work on the Oppo. It's easier to unplug & plug into the computer if I want to switch .iso files when I use a portable drive.

Also I've been reading that some USB hubs won't show all the drives on the Oppo. I wasn't sure if there was someone that has been using portable hard drives with a USB hub that found a combination that worked well.

Again I would be using 3 portable WD hard drives plugged into USB port. The drives are 3.0 USB drives & the hub would be USB 2.0

For the portable hard drives I was considering the WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive (WDBU6Y0020BBK-NESN) and for the USB hub I was considering the Belkin AC Powered Ultra-Slim Series 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub (F4U040v)

Thanks for your replies.

You most likely will need to power the drives external to the Oppo. I believe Philnik answered the rest already.

I'm using a portable non-powered USB 3.0 drive right now directly into the usb port.

I'm wanting to use 2 more for a total of 3 portable non-powered USB 3.0 drives thru a USB hub.

There should be a way to do so. I may have to use a AC powered USB drive. not sure on whether it would need to AC powered or non powered.

Using AC powered drives would be a killer as far as moving them to & from my computer to change .iso files

Like I said in my previous reply, you will most likely need to power the drives externally from the Oppo either by using a powered USB hub or by using drives that have their own power supplies. Trying to power 3 drives and a hub from a single USB port on the Oppo isn't a good idea.

Not to put anyone off posting this on this forum, but I am wondering if anyone knows if there is any jailbreak firmware for the 93 that would allow it to play iso files.

I am currently running a 93 with iso capable firmware, but obviously the unit has not been updated in quite a long time and I am running into blu ray discs (e.g. Banshee Season 1) that will not play correctly (probably a Java issue).

I am not sure that I want to take the risk, but I would like to know if there is even an option out there somewhere. I have found some for the 103, but not the 93.

Like I said in my previous reply, you will most likely need to power the drives externally from the Oppo either by using a powered USB hub or by using drives that have their own power supplies. Trying to power 3 drives and a hub from a single USB port on the Oppo isn't a good idea.

The problem with that is finding a powered USB hub that will show all 3 drives. From what I've read thru this thread not all USB hubs work with the Oppo & will show all the drives.

Is anyone using portable non-powered hard drives & if so what hub are you using that will show all the portable hard drives.

Okay. Found a powered USB 3.0 Hub that will work with the 3 portable non-powered 2 TB hard drives.

Will a switch work so I don't have to move the drives? A going to the computer & B to go to the Oppo?

I might avoid a USB-3 hub, simply because the early USB-3 controllers don't always play nice. But they are generally cheap enough to experiment.
Don't recall anyone talking about use of a switch here. I'd be careful about using anything that could interrupt the data stream to a HDD, but for sure you'd need to use the Windows "remove hardware" pathway before switching drives.

Suggest you start simple and see if its all working as desired before adding that.

Thanks & you're right about the 3.0 hub. It is finicky if you remove the drive & then connect it back.

I haven't had any problems with leaving the drives connected.

The reason I wanted to use the 3.0 hub is because I wanted to do a switch so I wouldn't need to disconnect & then reconnect the drives.

I wanted to be able to add or remove files by using the switch & have the speed of 3.0

I'll update if there are any problems.

If anyone is using the 3.0 switch connecting the hard drives to the Oppo & the other to their computer please list the switch you're using.

I know it's all trial & error. I talked to Oppo & they said it had to be a non-managed AC powered 3.0 hub which I found at Best Buy by using a 4-port Insignia 3.0 hub. I think it was $29.99. They said both USB ports on the Oppo can't exceed 5V so it would have to be an AC powered hub.

Now looking for a switch & 3.0 USB cables that will work & then I will be set.

No problems with the portable non-powered drives. Using WD Elements. Amazon has the 2TB on sale for $78

Like I said in my previous reply, you will most likely need to power the drives externally from the Oppo either by using a powered USB hub or by using drives that have their own power supplies. Trying to power 3 drives and a hub from a single USB port on the Oppo isn't a good idea.

The Oppo manual mentions how much power it can supply, and every portable bus-powered USB drive I've had states how much power it needs. So simply do the math and see if your situation works :-)